Pride & Opinions

If you’re looking for good young adult and children’s books that focus on GLBT themes, you’re in luck - the American Library Association, specifically its Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table, has released its first set of “Stonewall awards,” which recognize both fiction and non-fiction books. According to the press release, “The GLBTRT is a unit of the American Library Association. The GLBTRT was founded in 1970 as the Task Force on Gay Liberation. We are the nation’s first gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender professional organization. Each year, we present the Stonewall Book Awards (one for literature, one for non-fiction) to the best books with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered themes.” They describe the winners as such:

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Round Table (GLBTRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Stonewall Book Awards. Ellis Avery, author of “The Teahouse Fire,” published by Riverhead Books, is the winner of the Barbara Gittings Book Award in Literature, and Mark Doty, author of “Dog Years: A Memoir,” pubished by HarperCollins Publishers, is the winner of the Israel Fishman Book Award for Nonfiction.
…
Set against the background during the opening of Japan to the West, “The Teahouse Fire” draws the reader into the world of Aurelia Bernard, an American orphan who finds refuge in the household of a Japanese tea master. Avery’s complex historical novel weaves the transformation of Japanese culture and tradition with Aurelia’s coming of age and emerging sexuality.

“Dog Years: A Memoir” is, on its surface, the story of the day-to-day life of Doty, his partner and their two dogs. In spare and unsentimental prose, Doty reflects on love and loss and takes the reader through his process of grieving for his human and canine companions.

The website contains the finalists as well as the winners noted above, so it’s a good place to find some new reads.

Link via Mombian.

[GLBT, ALA, books, Stonewall Awards 2008 [/tag]

Regardless of one’s opinion on the efficacy of reclaiming language, I think we can all get behind the idea of discouraging children from slinging homophobic insults. Hence, No Name-Calling week, an effort “sponsored by GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, and Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing, in collaboration with nearly 50 national education and youth service organizations.” No Name-calling week is designed to use curriculum to help students understand not to call other children names, either for homophobic or other reasons. As 365gay.com notes,

The organizers provide schools with the tools and inspiration to launch an on-going dialogue about ways to eliminate bullying in their communities.
“No Name-Calling Week offers schools an opportunity to engage students about the importance of treating one another with respect,” said GLSEN spokesperson Dr. Eliza Byard.
“Unfortunately, far too many students experience the negative impact of name-calling, bullying and harassment. Through proactive educational interventions like No Name-Calling Week, schools can make a difference in the safety of all of their students.”

Whether you’re a teacher, parent, or just general friend to the GLBT and anti-bullying community, stopping name calling is a pretty universally good idea.

GLBT, bullying, homophobia, No Name-Calling Week

GLBT, bullying, homophobia, No Name-Calling Week

Despite the continuing need for GLBT folks to be able to marry in order to secure full rights, little by little courts appear to be making decisions that guarantee various rights guaranteed to married people onto GLBT couples and domestic partners. Today’s good news comes from California, where the California Supreme Court has “rejected a bid to overturn a law protecting domestic partners from increased property taxes when one of the partners dies and the other inherits the couple’s home.” According to 365gay.com,

In 2003 the state tax board issued a ruling that domestic partners would be treated in the same way as married couples in property inheritance. The legislature put the rule into law in 2005.
The measure was meant to insure that a surviving partner would not lose a home due to higher single person taxes.
…
Last October the California Court of Appeal upheld the law and dismissed the suit saying that the Legislature has the power to “define the scope of ‘change of ownership’ and to create exclusions from the general definition for nonarbitrary, rational policy reasons.”
The three-judge panel said the the Legislature adopted the exclusion for domestic partners to “guarantee equality for all Californians, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.”

My favorite part of the decision is that the court explicitly affirmed the idea that laws are needed to guarantee equality, and that sometimes exceptions to general laws are needed in the absence of better, broader (read: marriage laws).

Obviously, it’s not enough on it’s own, but I figure that it’s good to highlight the good steps that happen as well as pointing out the ways in which our society is still failing GLBT communities. Hope can be a powerful rallying force.

GLBT, marriage, property rights, California, California Supreme Court

GLBT, marriage, property rights, California, California Supreme Court

Truth Wins Out is an organization that speaks out against right-wing propaganda by attempting to expose the ex-gay myth and actually educate people on homosexuals, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals. Recently they have decided to speak out about the Mega-Church Pastor who decided to cancel the memorial service for a gay veteran.

For those of you not familiar with this story, the basics are that a Mega-Church agreed to hold a funeral for a veteran and then they decided to cancel it upon learning he was gay. They are denying that things happened this way, though everyone else involved in the case has a different story then what the church is preaching.

Cecil Howard Sinclair is the man in question whose funeral was being held at the Mega Church. He was a 46 year old man who fought in Desert Storm and helped rescuers to locate pilots that had been shot down. His cause of death stemmed from an infection that occurred after surgery that was meant to prepare him for a heart transplant. The family of Sinclair became involved with the Mega Church because his brother is a janitor at the church. They offered to host a memorial service when finding out that one of their employee’s brothers had died. Unfortunately, the church backed out after they discovered the obituary that listed Sinclair’s life partner as being one of his survivors.

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The city of Treviso is a city of 250,000 people that is near Venice in Italy. In fact, it’s the next big city closest to Venice. Recently, the city has been the stage for mass demonstrations, which are said to be just the beginning of what is to come. The reason for these demonstrations is because the deputy mayor has called for the ethnic cleansing of all of the homosexuals in Treviso.

This weekend, hundreds of people gathered in demonstration asking for the deputy mayor’s resignation. This all began when Giancarlo Gentilini spoke live at a television station, on Wednesday. Gentilini is stated as saying, “I will immediately give orders to my forces so that they can carry out an ethnic cleansing of faggots. The faggots must go to other cities where they are welcome. Here in Treviso there is no chance for faggots or the like.”

Apparently, he made these comments on learning that gay men were using a car park for pickups. Surprisingly, Gentilini who is now the deputy mayor was also the mayor from 1994 until 2003. Not surprisingly, Gentilini is part of a regional, right wing Northern league political organization. Additionally, he is well known for his outbursts that gather massive amounts of attention.

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Rosie’s blog has a post about an altercation she had with a crazed motorcycle man in Miami over the weekend. Apparently she took Kelly to dinner. After dinner, Kelly hopped in their convertible PT Cruiser and went to back up. Rosie stood behind the car to ensure that she had enough room to get by a motorcycle that was parked next to them.

As Kelly backed out safely, Rosie got in the car and buckled up. Before they had time to get out of the parking lot a big biker with a bald head came out screaming. On her blog, Rosie says, “It’s always a man. I tell ya.”

The guy proceeded to run towards the car and scream about his motorcycle. Rosie told him to chill and said they didn’t touch it, but he had wild eyes and was angry. As she told him to chill that only seemed to make him angrier and as he stood there, snorting like a dragon…and then…he said it…”Fucking Lesbians.”

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Lawyers of a Roman Catholic Church in the UK have been informed that they are not allowed to fire the Catholic headmaster of St. Cecilia’s primary school. The headmaster, Charles Coyne recently registered a partnership with one of the male teachers at a nearby school. The Archdiocese and Archbishop, Patrick Kelly, has said that they are powerless in the matter. Despite the Archdiocese of Liverpool wanting to take action, lawyers have informed them that Coyne cannot be removed.

Kelly goes on to say, “matters relating to his personal life have in no way interfered with his management of the school.”

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The BBC and Edge recently reported that eighteen men had allegedly traveled to a Bauchi State in Nigeria with intent to celebrate a gay wedding. According to reports, the men were arrested in a hotel and were allegedly wearing women’s clothing.

The judge overseeing the case, Malam Tanimu, ordered that the men would be sent to prison after they were arraigned on Wednesday. Seven years ago, Islamic Sharia law came into power and it has remained that way in Northern Nigeria ever since.

According to the police officers and judges dealing with this case, the consensus is that the men have broken Sharia law. Homosexuality is not the only sexual cause for death in Sharia law. Adultery can also lead to a death sentence. However, of all of these types of cases that led to a death sentence none of them have actually been carried out. Some have even been reversed.

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Fire Captain John Ghiotto, Engineer Jason Hewett, Alex Kane, and Chad Allison are all part of the San Diego fire department. They were approached to drive a fire truck in the Pride parade after the assigned, volunteer fire fighters had to back out due to unrelated issues. Now these four men plan to sue the city of San Diego.

If you’re asking yourself why they are suing the city, you’re not alone. The first reason cited was because they were forced to be in the parade despite their protests. All of the men say that they were given no choice in the matter. Other reasons, according to reports at Newsbusters state that the men were “subjected to vile sexual taunts from the homosexuals lining the parade route.”

The “insults” included almost comical remarks and statements such as:

“Show me your hose.”

“Give me mouth to mouth.”

“You can put out my fire”

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Imagine that you’re a soldier deployed in the field. It’s been a hard day; you’ve been shelled and shot at, and you and your unit are now holed up under heavy cover trying to get an idea of the enemy numbers and whether or not you have enough ammunition left to survive them.

No, stupid, your eyes are still closed. Open your eyes and breathe deep, calm down. There’s a strange smell in the air - thick, but not wholly unpleasant. Soft, alluring, but increasingly strong. You pick yourself up off the ground carefully, brushing at a strange pink dust that clings to your gear. Glancing around you, you notice your compatriots doing the same. And suddenly you’re struck by just how dashing Private Smith looks in his uniform, and how he has the prettiest blue eyes that you’ve ever seen…

Think it’s a joke? I did, too; I’ve been skimming various articles on this topic over the past few days, thinking it had to be a joke. A satirical spoof.

It’s not.

Pentagon Had Plans for ‘Gay Bomb’ - Newsmax.com

The Pentagon considered a proposal to create a hormone bomb that could turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.

U.S. military officials told KPIX-TV in San Francisco that a “gay bomb” was on the drawing board in 1994 but then subsequently rejected.

I had to check this out before I could buy it. Turns out they were dead serious - at least, on the fact that the incident on KPIX-TV actually occurred. There’s reference to it on Wikipedia, the BBC, and CBS. I honestly don’t know if I believe they ever intended to do this, but I at least believe that they said they did. Maybe. Kinda. Okay, I’m still a little skeptical.

The idea is…well, the fact that someone even came up with it is hilarious, insulting, and mind-boggling. I mean, sure, there’s something hot about a man in uniform. But suddenly turning said man and his compatriots gay is not going to immediately result in an uncontrollable love-fest, not without some artificial stimulation of the sex drive to overcome the primary thought processes that say “Hey! We’re in a battle zone, and under fire! We should be firing at the enemy troops, not trying to find a place to deposit our little soldiers!” Suddenly becoming gay does not turn you into a ravening beast who instantly jumps anything male in sight. We’re human beings, not dogs in heat. You want people to act that way, you’re going to need a pretty potent aphrodisiac and not just a homosexualizing agent.

Yes, I just made that term up.

Reading various articles on it produces conflicting suggestions; some say it was just intended to be a gay bomb, while the aphrodisiac bomb was something entirely different. So I have no idea what the intention was behind it.

Either way, I can still laugh my bloody arse off. Can you imagine an entire metropolitan area saturated by this chemical? It would be like some screwed-up version of Wraeththu (which is, by a large margin, the worst piece of tripe that I’ve ever read short of a Laurell K. Hamilton novel; it reads like flowery yaoi mpreg fanfiction written by a twelve-year-old girl). There would be some pissed-off wives and girlfriends at home, unless the chemical was unisex and also turned them lesbian and quite content with one another rather than their wayward men. Maybe if Isaiah Washington had had a hot dose of this stuff, he’d still have his job.

As hilarious as that would have been, I’m glad that the Pentagon scrapped the idea. To look at things more seriously, we don’t understand enough about human sexuality and what causes it for us to be tampering around with chemically altering it. All the lab tests in the world don’t prepare you for how a chemical agent will behave in the field, and the effect it will have on large populations - especially not in the long term. In an attempt to create a chemical that would change someone’s sexuality, they may end up creating a biological agent that is permanently damaging not only to the individuals influenced by it, but their environment and those who come in contact with them.

Then again, when has a nation at war ever cared about those things?

gay bomb, pentagon, military, chemical warfare, alternative weapons, biological weapons, changing sexuality